Urbanity, Rurality, and Adolescent Substance Use.

This study seeks to examine the ways in which substance abuse relates to characteristics of the community. These include possible differences in the associations between peer and family factors with use between youths living in rural and urban areas. The results of the study are based on a statewide survey of four thousand youths in a state located in the southwest United States. The author details the study, which tested for the inequality of coefficients from regression equations on three measures of substance abuse, which includes an overall scale, alcohol use, and marijuana use. The relationship between peer influence and substance abuse was stronger among urban youths, though there were no rural-urban differences for family factors.